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SCHOOL RECORDS AND REPORTS 



How to Secure Accurate School Statistics and Make 
Reporting Easy and Attractive 



W. F. DOUGHTY 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction 




Bulletin 60 



December 1, 1916 



THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 
STATE OF TEXAS 



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D. Of D. 
OCT 27 191? 




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SCHOOL RECORDS AND REPORTS 



THE FORMS 

The blank forms used in keeping school records and in making 
reports are prescribed by the State Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion in accordance with law and furnished free of charge by the State 
Department of Education to all school teachers and school superin- 
tendents throughout the State. These forms are usually supplied to 
teachers through the office of the county superintendent, and are num- 
bered and designated as follows : 

1. Form D32, Teacher's Daily Register. 

2. Form D1.7, Teacher's Monthly Report. 

3. Form D16, Head Teacher or Principal's Term Report. 

4. Form D31, Superintendent's Annual Report. 

THE FORMS DEFINED AND EXPLAINED 

Form D32, Teacher's Daily Register, is for the use of the teacher 
in keeping a record of the attendance and work of the children under 
her instruction. The careful teacher will, from day to day, give close 
attention to her register, and at the end of the term she will fill out 
every blank of the register as required by law. The teacher is not 
entitled to receive her last month's salary until her register has been 
properly closed and delivered to her principal or superintendent. 

Form D17, Teacher's Monthly Report, is prescribed for the conve- 
nience of the rural teacher in drawing her salary and for the informa- 
tion of the county superintendent, and is, therefore, of no value in 
making term or annual reports. These forms are for the use of teach- 
ers only who report directly to the county superintendent and are not 
to be used by teachers in independent districts receiving their salaries 
through local depositories. 

Form DIG, Head Teacher or Principal's Term Report, is to be used. 
by the head teacher or principal of every school in the State, whether 
it be a rural school taught by one or more teachers, a town school in 
an independent district, or a ward school in a system of city schools. 
The superintendent will hold the head teacher or principal of each 
school under his supervision responsible for the term report of his or 
her respective school. The superintendent must not approve the last 
month's salarv of the head teacher or principal until the term report 
has been properly submitted and approved by the superintendent. 

Form D31, Superintendent's Annual Report, is for the use of all 
county superintendents', all superintendents of schools in independent 
districts, and superintendents of city schools. The Superintendent's 
Annual Report is. in the main, a compilation of the head teacher or 



principal's term report. The form is made larger in size than the 
principal's report in order to provide more space for the compiled 
totals of the head teacher or principal's reports. It also calls for some 
additional information valuable to the State Superintendent in making 
a report of the State's educational progress. 

HOW TO MAKE REPORTING EASY 

The State's system of reports should be carefully studied by the 
superintendent beforehand with a view to making himself perfectly 
familiar with every item in the various forms and with every step in 
the process of reporting. When the superintendent is thoroughly 
familiar with every form used in the system of reporting he should 
then carefully instruct the head teacher or principal of every school 
under his supervision as to the proper use of the form so that no prin- 
cipal can fail to appreciate the full meaning and importance of school 
records and reports. The superintendent can well afford to devote the 
time necessary out of his principals' and teachers' meetings to explain 
the significance and value of carefully compiled school statistics and 
the great importance that attaches to each teacher's record and report 
in determining the educational status of the schools of the city, of 
the county, and of the State as a whole. If the following points 
are carefully observed little or no difficulty will be experienced in pre- 
paring the annual report to the State Superintendent of Public In- 
struction : 

1. The superintendent will require all teachers to keep the daily 
register prescribed by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction 
in accordance with law and furnished free of charge by the State De- 
partment of Education to all public school teachers. The law author- 
izes the superintendent to withhold the last month's salary until the 
teacher has properly closed her register, made all reports, and sub- 
mitted them to the superintendent for his approval. 

2. The superintendent will hold the head teacher or principal of 
each school responsible for a term report of his or her respective school, 
using Form D16. In schools where two or more teachers are employed 
the head teacher or principal will be required by the superintendent to 
compile the daily registers into one term report for the school. The 
county superintendent will not approve the last month's salary of the 
head teacher or principal until he or she submits a term report on 
Form D16, together with the registers of the school properly closed 
for the year, for the inspection and approval of the superintendent. 
In towns and cities having ward schools the city superintendent should 
pursue the same policy with respect to Avard principals as is here rec- 
ommended for head teachers or principals under the supervision of the 
county superintendent. 

3. When all schools have been formally closed and all records and 
reports properly submitted, the superintendent will have in his pos- 
session a term report from the head teacher or principal of each school 
under his supervision. These reports from head teachers, principals 



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or superintendents of the various units of the county or of the city 
will form the basis of the county or city superintendent's animal report 
to the State Superintendent; and if properly collected, the superin- 
tendent will experience the least difficulty possible in the preparation 
of his annual report. Do not depend upon teachers' daily registers for 
the necessary data in making your annual report to the State Superin- 
tendent. The superintendent should collect the daily registers for 
record and retain them to he delivered to the teachers next year, but 
never as a basis for making his annual report to the State Superin- 
tendent. 

COMPILING AND FILING REPORTS 

The superintendent should require from all teachers and principals 
that full and complete reports be submitted promptly at the close of 
school, and the best means of securing these reports in accordance with 
tins recommendation is to withhold the last month's salary until the 
reports are properly prepared, submitted to the superintendent, and 
approved by him. 'Statements to this effect made in teachers' meet- 
ings is usually all that is necessary to secure reports on time, and is the 
best way for' the superintendent or principal to avoid embarrassment 
at a later date when he is confronted with the fact that no instructions 
were given the teacher on the subject of requiring a report. 

All vouchers for payment of teachers in independent districts not 
under the supervision of the county superintendent should be dis- 
tributed through the hands of the superintendent, in order that he 
may have an opportunity to withhold the vouchers of teachers who 
are not disposed to prepare and submit final reports in due form. If 
the head teacher or principal is under the supervision of the county 
superintendent his term report should be filed in the office of the 
county superintendent as part of the records of the district to which 
it properly belongs; if the head teacher is principal of a ward school 
in a system of city schools, it should likewise be filed with the city 
superintendent as a part of the records of the city schools. 

The superintendent's annual report should be completed within ten 
davs after the close of the annual session. The original report should 
be mailed, immediately to the State Superintendent and a copy of it 
be filed in the superintendent's office for record and reference. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE DAILY REGISTER 

A careful reading of the directions herein submitted will lead one 
to observe that reporting school statistics under the new system is 
mainlv the compilation of records found in the teacher's daily register. 
Therefore, if the head teacher or principal will require all teachers to 
keep in due form the daily register prescribed by the State Superin- 
tendent and furnished free of cost by the State Department of Edu- 
cation, he will find himself at the close of school in possession of all 
necessary data to make his term report to the county or city super- 
intendent. By this method the reporting of school statistics to the 



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county or city superintendent will be a comparatively easy undertaking; 
and, in turn, if the county or city superintendents will require from 
each teacher or head teacher a term report as provided in this system 
of reporting, his annual report to the State Superintendent can be 
made simply by compiling the data contained in the term reports 
received from head teachers or principals of the various units under 
his supervision. 

SUPPLEMENTAL RECORDS 

If the authorities of any school desire to use another system of records 
and reports different from that prescribed by the State Superintendent 
in accordance with law, it is not necessary that it be introduced at the 
expense of the State's system of records and reports. The State De- 
partment of Education does not offer any objection to supplemental 
records and reports, but, in fact, commends their use to the towns and 
cities. By no means, however, should the superintendent or principal 
neglect the State's system of records and reports. The State is very 
liberal in its support of the public free schools and, as a matter of fact, 
it is right that the people of the State, the Governor, and the Legis- 
lature, know something of the results accomplished by its expenditure, 
as revealed through the State Superintendent's Biennial Eeport. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE ANNUAL REPORT 

The State's educational statistics collected through reports and com- 
piled by this Department indicate in comparison with those of other 
States that Texas occupies an unenviable rank, and knowing that the 
friends of education feel keenly the stigma of educational backwardness, 
the State Superintendent is making an especial effort to secure a complete 
accounting of the educational work of this State for the current year, 
which, in his opinion, has never been done heretofore, and which, when 
properly compiled, it is believed will place Texas in a much more 
favorable light as regards education in general. Of course you feel a 
personal interest not onlv in your own educational work but in the 
progress of the State as a whole, and you are urgently requested to 
take all the preliminary steps necessary to enable you to make a com- 
plete, accurate, and prompt annual report to the State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction so that he in turn may have compiled soon after 
the close of the school year the entire educational statistics of the State. 
If each superintendent who is due this Department an annual report 
will carefully comply with the above directions and without unneces- 
sary delay, it will be possible for the State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction to publish a complete record of the State's educational 
statistics in bulletin form for free distribution within three months 
after the close of the school year. 

AN APPEAL TO THE PATRIOTIC SUPERINTENDENT 

It occurs to me that the superintendent should be very proud of the 
work accomplished nnder his supervision, and for that reason be anxious 



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to see the results of his year's work carefully recorded in one of these 
annual reports. Is it nor interesting to study the distribution of your 
pupils by grades and ages? For example, is it not intensely interest- 
ing to study the distribution of your pupils by grades and ages as 
shown on the blank page of the head teacher or principal's report? 
Also, have you ascertained what instruction is costing per pupil as 
based upon daily attendance, and have you made a careful study and 
comparison- of the numerous other items of the report within your own 
system of schools with other schools of the county, of the city, and of 
the State? By all means be able to avoid dealing too extensively in 
generalities when speaking and writing about your school. 

Certainly the law does not require too much in this respect. Xo 
more is asked of you in the matter of reports than is required by law 
of superintendents in other progressive States; nor is the requirement 
excessive in comparison with business methods. It is well understood 
that banks are required to keep a careful record of every day's business, 
to be subject to strict inspection, and to make carefully compiled quar- 
terly statements of business affairs. Almost any day a bank can give 
you a strict accounting of its business condition, and it takes especial 
pride in the fact. Superintendents, principals and teachers in Texas 
should awaken fully to the importance of keeping complete and accurate 
statistics of educational work so that the State may receive full credit 
for all that is being done for the education of the children of this State. 
Let me suggest that you begin now making necessary preparations that 
will enable you to submit the most complete annual report ever sent 
to the Department from your school. 

HELPFUL ASSISTANCE 

If there are any items of the report which yon cannot understand 
after having given them careful study you should write the Depart- 
ment for explanation, which will be given gladly. In other words, the 
Department will assist you in every way it can in the collection and 
compilation of your report. It is, I think, a mutual affair, and I am 
sure we can work together beautifully in tins important undertaking. 
Let the slogan be "Texas to the front in Education." 

Sincerely, 

W. F. Doughty, 
State Superintendent. 
Austin, Texas, November 25, 1916. 



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